Okay But Seriously, How Do You Romance?
by Wild Weeb
Summary: Trying to write for your OTP is hard when you have no experience with romance. But so many other authors seem to know what they're talking about, so it'd be okay to ask them...right?


**A/N: What is this mess.**

* * *

Olivia sat in front of the computer, staring at the screen as her eyebrow twitched in irritation. If she'd maybe looked up, she'd realize that the only source of light was that very screen, night having fallen hours ago and every other light in the room turned off. But she didn't look up. She stared at the screen, probably ruining her eyes slowly, and contemplated what to do from here.

She could call Rin. Rin would know what to do (maybe), having run into this kind of block before (probably), so she could give Olivia advice and a push in the right direction (not likely). Or she could text Miku. She would have an idea of how this kind of thing worked, right? Some more realistic tips would be a much better help than whatever romanticized version Rin gave her.

Her head fell forward, landing squarely on her keyboard. She'd do something about the string of letters and characters later; right now, she just wanted to shut her eyes and think. Not that mashing her forehead against the keyboard, or any surface really, was actually conducive to thinking; she just didn't want to stare at that mocking screen any longer.

_Maybe I could text Cul_, she thought blankly as colors swam behind her closed eyelids. _She would have something helpful to say, right?_ Probably, but in all truth Cul had about as much experience here as Olivia herself and likely wouldn't be able to provide much insight. Olivia released a frustrated sigh at the thought as she brought her head back up.

_I have to ask someone experienced. Okay. No problem. I'm friends with plenty of people with experience._ Actually it was more like two and Rin was one of them, but maybe she was counting people who...weren't _quite_ friends, per se...

And who she therefore could never ask for help with this sort of thing. _Never_. Because what if they thought she was foolish? Or an amateur? What if they found her weird and never helped her out and blocked any comments she made on their work? She didn't want to be rejected by the people she looked up to, but Rin wasn't an option and that second person's internet service had been turned off...

Sighing again, she dared to look at the screen. The lines of random text generated by her forehead seemed like an improvement compared to the rest of the crap she'd gotten down, but she still highlighted it all and gently pressed the delete key. As it all disappeared and the cursor blinked at the end of the actual writing, she decided she had no choice and opened up her browser. She was already logged into the site she wanted, and after a few keystrokes and mouse clicks she was on the page of the user she was looking for.

She typed up a quick message, reading through it several times and making unnecessary tweaks here and there to ensure the lowest possible level of embarrassment. Then, with a deep breath, she clicked send before she could convince herself to give up and figure it all out on her own.

Her mission accomplished, she let her head fall back to her keyboard. After all, she had nothing else to do but hope this person would give her some pointers. _Writer's block is a terrible thing_, thought the novice fanfiction author.

* * *

Meiji's phone dinged with the arrival of a new email. Which happened fairly often, so she didn't think much of it. She'd just check it later when she wasn't so busy with...actually, she wasn't doing anything. She just didn't feel like checking her email. Lazy of her, maybe, but being seen as lazy wasn't a major concern for her.

Though, even if she wasn't _doing_ much, she was thinking pretty hard. Not that it was uncommon of her—she was a writer, after all—but now she had something specific in mind. Her next fic was going to be something long, something great, something that would get her reviews. The only trouble being that she had absolutely no plot ideas. All the good ones came to her at all the wrong times and she'd manage to forget them before the right times came. Or she remembered the idea but had no clue how to make it into something people would _want_ to read. Which was really frustrating because they were just such good ideas and she had no way of conveying them.

With a sigh, she gave in, picking up her phone and unlocking it to look through her new emails. A few from the fanfiction site she often used, but one stood out. It was marked as a private message, having been sent directly to her rather that left as a story review for anyone to see. Why not check it out? See if it was someone whose fic she couldn't remember leaving something on. The sender's username _did_ look vaguely familiar.

_Hey, so I was wondering, would you be able to help me with something I'm writing? I don't really know where to go from the point I'm at, but it's nowhere near finished. Since you seem to have a lot of experience with the genre, I thought maybe I could ask your assistance?_

Oh, no, it was just some fledgling author looking for a bit of guidance. Meiji guessed that the sender was being unspecific on purpose, probably because they wanted her to agree before telling her anything. And admittedly, the request had piqued her curiosity. Which genre? She'd written for just about every one the site offered. So she really couldn't guess what this would be about, meaning she could regret agreeing to it should she so choose. But then...it wasn't like she had anything better to do right now.

_I can try to help if you'd like. I'll just need a little more to go on lol._ She sent the message off with barely a second thought and resumed staring at the wall, thinking. Good ideas could come at any moment, after all.

* * *

The moment a new message arrived in her inbox, Olivia opened it up, not bothering to look at the subject or source. As it turned out, it was just an ad for a site she'd once ordered something from. _One_ thing. And now they suddenly wanted her to sign up, become a member, buy more things. Ugh. No thanks. She was near-broke anyway.

But it wasn't long before an email from the fanfiction site came in, so that was a relief. She hadn't really expected the other author to be online now, though maybe she should've, seeing as they were posting to Tumblr. As she opened the message, the blonde was a little worried about what she might find, but as she read over the message—again and again, just to make absolutely sure it was really there—her worry faded away, replaced by an excited . She'd actually agreed! Sort of! Whatever, it was a start! Olivia typed back quickly, faster than she knew she was capable, _Okay, thanks! But I'm gonna have to send the file to your email or something; is that okay?_ Adding her own email address just in case, she sent off the message and waiting, a tiny grin refusing to leave her face.

Everything was happening a little quickly, maybe, but all the better for her.

* * *

Trying to come up with something was a lost cause, it seemed. But Meiji couldn't help it if the Internet was distracting. Not to mention how unexpectedly fast this novice author had responded. She looked over the words and smiled a bit, finding it kinda cute how they'd given her their own email so she wouldn't have to. That didn't seem to be something a lot of people thought about.

She added the address to her contacts, putting in their username from the fanfiction site as the contact name, and fired off a short note. _Got your message, in case you couldn't tell. Here's my email address. And my name's Meiji, so you know._ Not until after it'd been sent did she bother to think that maybe giving her name might've been a bit...much? Ah, well. It was done now.

Now there was nothing to do but wait, as she'd already tried to think of a decent idea for writing and come up empty. Actually bothering to look at the time, she saw just how late it was getting. That certainly explained why her eyes felt a bit sore.

_All right_, she told herself. _Just look over whatever they send you, maybe send a couple comments back, and then sleep for days. Unless they don't send anything tonight. I mean, it's pretty la—_

Her thought was cut off by the ding of new mail in her inbox. _Ooookay sticking to Plan A._ She opened the attached document file and was surprised to find a current word count of two thousand and forty seven. _This_ was "nowhere near finished"? Just what did the author have planned for this?

It occurred to Meiji that they might've sent an actual message in the email that she'd missed, and upon looking she found that her guess was right. _Okay, thank you! I sent what I have so far._ There was an entire paragraph describing where they wanted to go with this, and in her tired haze Meiji wondered how they'd typed all this so fast as she skimmed through to the very end. _I realize that it's late, so you can get back to me whenever is good for you. Thanks again! By the way, my name's Olivia._ Somehow, despite there being no hint of it whatsoever in the text, Meiji detected an almost playful tone in that last sentence. Smiling to herself, she was almost reluctant to shut down her phone and laptop without reading what Olivia had sent, but she'd let herself think about it long enough to realize that she was just so _exhausted_ and there was no way she'd get through the whole thing. Besides, Olivia had made clear that she understood it was late and Meiji was probably tired and—

Wait.

Waaaait.

How did she know it was late where Meiji was? Did she live in the same time zone?

...The pale-haired girl dismissed it. She was really not awake enough to think right now.

* * *

Olivia grinned to herself as she closed the laptop, standing with a stretch and heading toward the kitchen. She'd really lost track of time; her mother must've already gone to bed. She shrugged to herself, lacing her fingers together as she stretched her arms out in front of her until she felt a series of satisfying pops in her knuckles and down her spine. Not only had a seasoned fanfiction author agreed to read _her_ work and help her out, but that same author had willingly given her their name and email address. They were _acquaintances_—and that was just a step away from being _friends_! Just think! _Friends_ with a _fanfiction author_! The kind she probably would've referred to as senpai two years ago!

Yes. Life was good.

She just hoped she'd made the right decision here.

Olivia pulled the carton of milk out of the fridge, filling a glass before replacing it and turning to lean against the counter as she sipped from it. She could admit that she was a halfway-decent writer, but not much past that. What if Meiji didn't like it? What if Meiji _did_ like it and decided to steal it? Why was their name Meiji anyway? Questions floated through Olivia's head as she gulped down her milk, made foggy by the fatigue that was finally catching up to her. When had she actually slept last...? Nevermind, that wasn't important. The fanfiction was the important part. Just what was she gonna do with that? And what would Meiji think of it?

Ow. The milk was still cold, and now a brainfreeze was slowly setting in. That combined with the headache she'd already had from staring at her laptop screen all night convinced Olivia to stop thinking about all this for now and get some sleep. Sleep would be good. ...Yeah.

Still, as she did all her nighttime preparations and crawled under her blanket, she couldn't help but wonder one last time what Meiji thought of her.

Her?

Her..._fanfiction_, of course.

Not her personally. Pffft.

_...Still..._ she let herself think as she drifted off, allowing sleep to overtake her.

* * *

**A/N: So I did a thing...**

**I was kinda half-planning on making this a chapter fic, but of course that depends on the feedback I get from this. I know it's short and all, but any reviews or advice you could give me would help a lot. Especially since the title is a legitimate question of mine.**

**Also, if I end up writing more chapters, I need to know what kind of relationship should develop between these two. Friends? More? Less? What do y'all wanna see?**

**Until then, be seeing you.**


End file.
